The processing of silver halide color photographic materials consists primarily of two processes, namely color development (with prior black-and-white development in the case of a color reversal material) and a desilvering process. The desilvering process can be carried out using a bleaching process and a fixing process, or a single bath bleach-fixing process may be carried out together or separately. Additional processes, such as water washing processes, stopping processes, stabilizing processes and preceding processes for accelerating development, for example, can also be included, if desired.
In color development, the exposed silver halide is reduced to form silver and, at the same time, couplers react with the oxidized primary aromatic amine developing agent to form dyes. The halide ions which are produced by the breakdown of the silver halide in this process are dissolved in and accumulated in the developing bath. On the other hand, the color developing agents are consumed by the reaction with the couplers mentioned above. Other components are also lost by retention in the photographic photosensitive material and the component concentration in the developing bath falls. Hence, in the continuous processing of a large amount of a silver halide photographic material in an automatic processor, for example, some means of maintaining the components of the color developing bath at fixed concentrations are required to prevent a variation in the development characteristics due to changes in the developing bath component concentrations.
For example, as the effect of concentration in the consumed components such as developing agents and preservatives is slight, the concentration in the replenisher is generally increased. Furthermore, there are cases in which dissolved out materials which have the effect of inhibiting development, such as halides, are included in low concentrations in the replenisher or omitted from the replenisher altogether. Moreover, compounds which have the effect of eliminating the effect of the dissolved out components have also been included in the replenishers. Furthermore, there are also cases in which the pH and the concentrations of alkali and of chelating agents, etc., are adjusted. Normally, methods of replenishment with a replenisher are used to replenish the deficient components and to dilute the components of which the concentrations increase. A large amount of overflow is created naturally by replenishment with a replenisher and this causes problems both economically and from the point of view of pollution.
Recently, reduction in the replenishment rate (i.e., the amount of replenisher) of color developers has become very desirable with the increased processing rates now being used to conserve resources and to reduce pollution levels. However, if the replenishment rate of the color developing bath is simply reduced, the problems arise because of the adverse effects on photographic properties due to the dissolving out and accumulation of the materials which are dissolved out from the photosensitive materials. This problem is especially pronounced with the hydroquinone based compounds which are included in photosensitive materials as gradation controlling agents.
Methods of increasing the oil solubility of the hydroquinone based compounds have been considered as a means of overcoming this problem. However, although there is some improvement in the changes in photographic properties on running when these hydroquinone based compounds are used, they do not have a satisfactory effect as gradation controlling agents and good photographic properties are not obtained. Furthermore, a method in which dimers of these hydroquinones are included in photosensitive materials is disclosed in JP-B-56-21145 (the term "JP-B" as used herein refers to an "examined Japanese patent publication"). However, in this disclosure, the processing involved is a low temperature processing (25.degree. C.) and the effect is different from that of the present invention in that the compounds are included to prevent the occurrence of color turbidity. Thus, the gradation controlling effect in the low replenishment processing of the present invention could not be readily predicted on the basis of this prior art.
In this sense, the development of a technique for achieving good gradation without washing out into the developing bath during continuous processing and without adverse effect on the photographic properties is clearly desirable.